Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey

[Tombstone]

Hello my UK friends. What's your feeling about this? Poll attached. I'll vote first - I wouldn't like it.



From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored.



By Steve Connor, Science Editor

Published: 22 December 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transp ... 334686.ece

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank.

Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.

But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.

The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis of a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an operation designed to drive criminals off the road.

In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities to gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of organised gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans or motorcycles.

The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have sanctioned the spending of £24m this year on equipment.

More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted to Hendon via a secure police communications network.

Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with the Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to incorporate their own CCTV cameras into the network. In addition to cross-checking each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test certificate.

"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV somewhere. The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates will be read as well," said Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and chairman of the Acpo steering committee on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

"What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle was in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime scenes. Particularly important are associated vehicles," Mr Whiteley said.

The term "associated vehicles" means analysing convoys of cars, vans or trucks to see who is driving alongside a vehicle that is already known to be of interest to the police. Criminals, for instance, will drive somewhere in a lawful vehicle, steal a car and then drive back in convoy to commit further crimes "You're not necessarily interested in the stolen vehicle. You're interested in what's moving with the stolen vehicle," Mr Whiteley explained.

According to a strategy document drawn up by Acpo, the national data centre in Hendon will be at the heart of a surveillance operation that should deny criminals the use of the roads.

"The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle movements to be captured," the Acpo strategy says.

"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation opportunities on a national basis," it says.

Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.

"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent."

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank.

Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.

But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.

The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis of a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an operation designed to drive criminals off the road.

In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities to gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of organised gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans or motorcycles.

The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have sanctioned the spending of £24m this year on equipment.

More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted to Hendon via a secure police communications network.

Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with the Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to incorporate their own CCTV cameras into the network. In addition to cross-checking each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test certificate.

"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV somewhere. The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates will be read as well," said Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and chairman of the Acpo steering committee on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

"What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle was in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime scenes. Particularly important are associated vehicles," Mr Whiteley said.

The term "associated vehicles" means analysing convoys of cars, vans or trucks to see who is driving alongside a vehicle that is already known to be of interest to the police. Criminals, for instance, will drive somewhere in a lawful vehicle, steal a car and then drive back in convoy to commit further crimes "You're not necessarily interested in the stolen vehicle. You're interested in what's moving with the stolen vehicle," Mr Whiteley explained.

According to a strategy document drawn up by Acpo, the national data centre in Hendon will be at the heart of a surveillance operation that should deny criminals the use of the roads.

"The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle movements to be captured," the Acpo strategy says.

"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation opportunities on a national basis," it says.

Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.

"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent."

[SOJOURNER]

But how would they know who and how many people are in the vehicles? What about stolen plates? What about forged plates?

[gmc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/whereiliv ... ails.shtml

Our roads are at times incredibly congested, it's parts of the motorway network that has these sorts of cameras. We got kind of used to cctv in city centres it's one of the reasons they were able to find out who was behind the july 7 bombings in london. Most of the bigger patrol stations have cameras that record number plates to dissuade driveaways, also if it is your stolen car that gets picked up this way would you object?

Thanks to the Ira very few object to having bags being searched going in to public buildings being wary of untended bags in railway and airports is also habitual. You will see no litter bins in airports or railway stations-too handy to drop a bomb in.

There have been suggestions that road pricing is used to try and cut car usage at peak times. Given what it costs for petrol etc it would be a brave govt that tried bringing that in. The other suggestion was using them to catch speeders by monitoring the cars on stretches of motorway. It's more that aspect than the security bit that niggles. On the other hand I don't trust TB and his cronies-his latest idea is to amalgamate all he local police forces currently 43 in to twelve large ones. Central control and very much against our tradition of a locally controlled police force. At least he has been unsuccesful in getting his anti-terrorism bill through. We have had terrorist attacks for years the London bombings for all their scope were nothing new and in any case we don't get hysterical about such things as you yanks so the case for draconian measures is a harder sell.

Yes it is a bit big brotherish and the potential for abuse is very clear. On the other hand fighting crime and terrorism terrorists is an intelligence war.

Road cameras have their uses.

Give you a personal example-I was involved in a road rage incident with some idiot trying to run me off the road. had he succeeded would I have been pleased it was caught on camera and the police and ambulance were `dispatched-too right I would.

[BabyRider]

skittles2004 wrote: You british are just so advanced... how is america going to keep up!!!
If this is "keeping up", I don't want ANY part of it.



I thought you British beat communism about 6 centuries ago?? This is just so wrong on so many levels. Next thing they're going to do is try and clone Hitler.

[MzInterpret]

I am totally against it. We live in a nanny state and it's becoming worse. This system of watching you in the car is also going to impact you directly on the car tax you pay on the roads.

Busier roads will obviously carry a higher tax.



All this government wants is to tax the driver to death so we will be forced to use sub standard public transport!

[BabyRider]

MzInterpret wrote: I am totally against it. We live in a nanny state and it's becoming worse. This system of watching you in the car is also going to impact you directly on the car tax you pay on the roads.



Busier roads will obviously carry a higher tax.





All this government wants is to tax the driver to death so we will be forced to use sub standard public transport!
Is your main concern about this SERIOUSLY the money???

[MzInterpret]

BabyRider wrote: Is your main concern about this SERIOUSLY the money???
Yes. It's more tax upon people who are already taxed to death.

This has got sod all to do with our safety! I don't buy that reason for one second!

[BabyRider]

MzInterpret wrote: Yes. It's more tax upon people who are already taxed to death.



This has got sod all to do with our safety! I don't buy that reason for one second!
So the infringement of your human rights and your privacy and an all-controlling "government" is not an issue in your mind?

[chonsigirl]

Just a way to ticket speeders more........................not!

A definite infringement on private rights. Who wants to know where I do my shopping at?

[MzInterpret]

BabyRider wrote: So the infringement of your human rights and your privacy and an all-controlling "government" is not an issue in your mind?
Oh that too! Everything about this stinks!

[abbey]

I think it's a bloody liberty!

I dont have anything to hide, but the thought of the government keeping tabs on me really pee's me off.

[BTS]

skittles2004 wrote: You british are just so advanced... how is america going to keep up!!!


Skitts.... This is how, 4 we Americans are way ahead of the Britts........GPS



Trust federal bureaucrats to take a good idea and transform it into a frightening proposal to track Americans wherever they drive.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go. So far, Washington state and Oregon have received fat federal checks to figure out how to levy these "mileage-based road user fees."

Now electronic tracking and taxing may be coming to a DMV near you. The Office of Transportation Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million. A spokeswoman on Friday said the office is "shooting for the end of the year" for the announcement, and more money is expected for GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking efforts.

In principle, the idea of what bureaucrats like to call "value pricing" for cars makes sound economic sense.

Airlines and hotels have long charged less for off-peak use. Toll roads would be more efficient--in particular, less congested--if they could follow the same model and charge virtually nothing in the middle of the night but high prices during rush hour.

That price structure would encourage drivers to take public transportation, use alternate routes, or leave earlier or later in the day.

The problem, though, is that these "road user fee" systems are being designed and built in a way that strips drivers of their privacy and invites constant surveillance by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Zero privacy protections

Details of the tracking systems vary. But the general idea is that a small GPS device, which knows its location by receiving satellite signals, is placed inside the vehicle.

Some GPS trackers constantly communicate their location back to the state DMV, while others record the location information for later retrieval. (In the Oregon pilot project, it's beamed out wirelessly when the driver pulls into a gas station.)

The problem, though, is that no privacy protections exist. No restrictions prevent police from continually monitoring, without a court order, the whereabouts of every vehicle on the road.

No rule prohibits that massive database of GPS trails from being subpoenaed by curious divorce attorneys, or handed to insurance companies that might raise rates for someone who spent too much time at a neighborhood bar. No policy bans police from automatically sending out speeding tickets based on what the GPS data say.

The Fourth Amendment provides no protection. The U.S. Supreme Court said in two cases, U.S. v. Knotts and U.S. v. Karo, that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy when they're driving on a public street.

The PR offensive

Even more shocking are additional ideas that bureaucrats are hatching. A report prepared by a Transportation Department-funded program in Washington state says the GPS bugs must be made "tamper proof" and the vehicle should be disabled if the bugs are disconnected.

"This can be achieved by building in connections to the vehicle ignition circuit so that failure to receive a moving GPS signal after some default period of vehicle operation indicates attempts to defeat the GPS antenna," the report says.

It doesn't mention the worrisome scenario of someone driving a vehicle with a broken GPS bug--and an engine that suddenly quits half an hour later. But it does outline a public relations strategy (with "press releases and/or editorials" at a "very early stage") to persuade the American public that this kind of contraption would be, contrary to common sense, in their best interest.

One study prepared for the Transportation Department predicts a PR success. "Less than 7 percent of the respondents expressed concerns about recording their vehicle's movements," it says.

That whiff of victory, coupled with a windfall of new GPS-enabled tax dollars, has emboldened DMV bureaucrats. A proposal from the Oregon DMV, also funded by the Transportation Department, says that such a tracking system should be mandatory for all "newly purchased vehicles and newly registered vehicles."

The sad reality is that there are ways to perform "value pricing" for roads while preserving anonymity. You could pay cash for prepaid travel cards, like store gift cards, that would be debited when read by roadside sensors. Computer scientists have long known how to create electronic wallets--using a technique called blind signatures--that can be debited without privacy concerns.

The Transportation Department could require privacy-protective features when handing out grants for pilot projects that may eventually become mandatory. It's now even more important because a new U.S. law ups the size of the grants; the U.K. is planning GPS tracking and per-mile fees ranging between 3 cents and $2.

We'll see. But given the privacy hostility that the Transportation Department and state DMVs have demonstrated so far, don't be too optimistic.

[Yavanna]

BabyRider wrote: So the infringement of your human rights and your privacy and an all-controlling "government" is not an issue in your mind?


Is it an infringement of my human rights to be seen on camera ? A privacy issue, sure, but not a human rights issue. Human rights are the first thing to go anway when the argument in favour of losing them is "national security" - as Americans must know, given Guantanamo Bay, CIA-kidnappings of alleged criminals and phone taps unauthorised by the courts.

As to an all-controlling government, that's very amusing. You'd have to live here and see our lot operate to understand why that's funny.

But I wouldn't worry folks - the UK government is completely unable to buy in a computer system or programme which does anything it's meant to ; see the CSA system, the tax credit system etc etc.

[theia]

But I wouldn't worry folks - the UK government is completely unable to buy in a computer system or programme which does anything it's meant to ; see the CSA system, the tax credit system etc etc.


Very good point, Yavanna, I'd forgotten that :wah: